Gallagher: Let Boogaard’s legacy be cautious treatment of players

Tony Gallagher, The Province06.08.2012

The family of the late Derek Boogaard receive a jersey from Minnesota Wild players Josh Harding (37) and Nick Schultz (55) during an on-ice presentation prior to a game in November 2011 in St Paul, Minnesota.

Related

The work done by Derek Boogaard’s father, chronicling the prescription history of his son before he died last year, has certainly been a valuable eye-opener to hockey — and to all professional sports.

Clearly it would be in the best interests of the athletes and the team for their doctors to try to keep better tabs on which medications their players have taken; particularly when you consider the list of pain killers and tranquillizers Boogaard was able to obtain from a series of doctors and dentists connected to both the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers in the final years before the hockey tough guy died.

Clearly, medications were given to Boogaard too freely, when he would ask.

It’s also clear that fewer physicians should be involved in the process, and a spreadsheet of what has already been prescribed made available to the doctor before further medication is doled out.

And for this reason, New York Times writer John Branch and Boogaard’s father have done hockey and other sports a favour by alerting them to this problem for future cases.

Whether this is the forerunner of a lawsuit against the respective teams, or the NHL — or both — remains to be seen. Still, while there are still, clearly, problems involved in the treatment of hockey players, as evidenced by this latest story, the league has come miles in the care and concern of its athletes in the years this agent has been involved in the game.

Gone are the days when doctors deliberately turned a blind eye to problems, so as to improve the team’s ability to win a given game or playoff series; at one time the practice was widespread.

For years, in the 1970s, it was widely believed in media circles that the Philadelphia Flyers had a reputation of intentionally trading players to unsuspecting teams, when it was believed their injuries were going to be a long-term problem. Whether this was in fact the case was never proven, of course, because nobody ever seriously looked into the situation at the league level.

General managers on some teams would literally stand over their doctors as they treated and made recommendations to a player about whether he could go back into a game, which created pressure to make the call in the team’s favour.

Those doctors who would not be gerrymandered often found themselves without a new contract when it expired with some teams with, shall we say, more competitive ownership.

These days you really don’t see much of this at all and on some teams — like the Vancouver Canucks, for instance — the emphasis is quite the other way round. There will be an emphasis on caution, with the Mason Raymond situation a classic case in point.

Raymond was ready to play at least two weeks before the team finally let him play, after his long recovery from that back injury suffered in Game 6 of last year’s Stanley Cup final last year. More and more teams are committed in similar fashion.

While you can never say, for certain, you can be pretty sure the doctors who prescribed the medications to Boogaard had no idea the kid was getting more elsewhere, and had no idea they were being played by someone who should have been taking a more responsible, proactive approach to his own health.

And to those who would say “hockey killed Derek Boogaard,” as the Deadspin headline read on its report of the Branch story, it has to be said that the relationship between patient and doctor must be one of good faith, or problems in any line of work will be unpreventable.

This is not to shift blame onto the deceased. This isn’t the airline industry, where often the pilot who isn’t around to defend himself gets routinely fingered.

Everyone liked Boogaard. He was a helluva teammate and always very helpful to us in the media, and nobody is pointing fingers at him because he clearly had some issues with which he couldn’t deal.

But this could have happened in any sport, any industry or with any person right here on the street in Vancouver, going from clinic to clinic complaining of severe pain to obtain the same small doses Boogaard did.

It shouldn’t have happened with Boogaard. Hockey, and every other industry which takes care of its employees, has had a light shone on an area of possible abuse.

But good health is the responsibility of the doctor and patient, and it requires the best of intentions of both parties. In the final analysis, perhaps both parties involved in Derek Boogaard’s care could have been better.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.